Lena Friday
Magdalena 'Lena' Friday is a main character in Twisted Logic ''and the sequal ''Dead Hearts, she was a member of the second generation aboard the Helios 7 mission sent to investigate the chance of living on Mercury. She was the in-training solar radiologist, as well as the youngest member on board, only 12 years old when the ship left Earth. During the events of Twisted Logic, she is 22 years old, born on the 19th April, 2035, and she's still 22 upon the return of Helios 7 in Dead Hearts due to astro-freezing. She's from London, England, and stands at the small height of 5"3. 'Background' Before Helios 7 Lena lived in London until she was 6 then moved with her family to New York. When she was 10 she was pulled in to the Helios 7 preparation unit and was picked as a member of the second generation. The next two years were spent training for the mission and keeping everything totally confidential. Lena was nearly kicked out after she told her younger sister what she was doing but the youth was proved to be more able to keep the project a secret than her older sister. During the two year training, she and Danielle ‘Dani’ May grew close and their friendship continued on Helios 7. After leaving Earth, Lena suffered from homesickness with the rest of them, but learned to live as comfortable as possible on the ship. The dead zone brought new problems for Lena, as she started suffering from chronic claustrophobia due to the enclosed, deadened and silent environment that had become her home. Her claustrophobia was so bad at one point that she began to be physically ill, drawing the attention of the ship’s doctor who helped her with regular sessions and tried to quell the bouts. However, Lena never recovered from her claustrophobia. The only person who could make any noticeable improvements to her when she was in one of her attacks was her brother John who was the ship’s second generation physicist. In the year 2052 the Icarus 1 passes Helios 7 (who was in orbit around Mercury gathering as much data as possible on the prospect planet) and is drawn to the fact that it is not a registered spaceship. Pinbacker, who is already looking for distractions from the mission docks Helios 7 and the Icarus 1 crew realise that the Helios 7 crew are not a threat. After this, the Icarus 1 crew invites the H7 crew over for a change in scene and company. During this visit, Pinbacker kills two members of his own crew and frames the H7 crew. The Icarus 1 crew turns against the Helios 7 crew, and take a vote whether or not they should kill them all or just throw them back on their ship and send them off. By a very small margin, the second option wins, but Pinbacker wants to kill them all in case they go back to Earth and spread the real story about him. He ‘volunteers’ to take the Helios 7 crew back onto their ship where he kills them in the observation room which he opens to full sunlight then locks from the outside. Jake, Dani’s boyfriend managed to perceive something bad was going to happen before Pinbacker killed them, and told Dani and Lena to hide on the ship. After Pinbacker leaves Helios 7 he blows up the airlock and tells the crew that this bomb was yet another attack from the Helios 7 crew. The explosion throws Helios 7 into the asteroid Sif which orbits Mercury. The ship crashes into Sif where it becomes a base for Lena and Dani. They visit the observation room where they find the whole crew; including John had formed a human shield in front of Dylan, the first child to be born in space. Dylan survived relatively uninjured but his eyes were permanently damaged by the fleeting sun exposure. He would be blind for the rest of his life. Upon freeing Dylan from the bodies and are taking him to the med bay, the recently crashed ship slips on its new surface (Sif) and throws Lena into a broken metal bar, impaling her through the stomach. Lena is unconscious in the sick bay for an immeasurable amount of time and when she wakes, Dani has gone into emotional lockdown, Dylan is blind and the ship is ruined. Over the next six years she, Dani and Dylan grow accustomed to life in Helios 7 orbiting Mercury on Sif. Despite not being able to overexert herself due to her injury (which left a gruesome scar), Lena tries to do as much as she can to not feel like a burden. She adopts cooking duties (which look frightening but taste divine) and takes over the bulk of raising Dylan, not wanting to skive off the workload because Dani is constantly flat out trying to fix up Helios into an inhabitable hunk of metal. Sometimes she has claustrophobic attacks causing her intense headaches and nausea (often vomiting), but also moments of overexertion cause her to have difficulty breathing and pain due to her injury. 'Appearance' Lena has short curly dark blond hair, very dark green eyes and is extremely pale because she lived in Britain when she was younger, where the changes in Earth’s sunlight and temperatures were very drastic, plus there is not much natural light on Helios 7. Often looks kind of sickly. 'Personality' Lena was a relatively innocent 12-year-old, but her brother and Dani soon changed this. By the time Icarus 2 meets her, she has become an extremely determined, blunt, outgoing and crude young woman. However, Lena does have her soft side, which most of the time is not useful to the mission (staying alive) and therefore not shown very often. Dylan has a special ability to access this soft side. She is prone to swearing, and swearing a lot (her brother John is solely responsible for her diverse vocabulary in this region), and often uses crude humour to lighten the mood (though sometimes in entirely inappropriate ways or circumstances).Mostly this is due to the fact that she is insecure about her lack of experience with boys compared to Dani who has already lost her virginity. She is calmer and more patient than Dani, naturally balancing her, plus due to her parenting role for Dylan. Lena, like Dani would have a difficult time to fully trust someone new in her life, partly from the fact that the only significant relationships she has ever had were with either family members or with Dani and Dylan who are practically family to her so she would not be used to not knowing someone extremely well (and them her), and partly because she would not know how to act around a new person as they have been incredibly rare in her life. 'Ambitions' Before the Helios 7 mission, Lena wanted to go into science, but a more biological focus such as disease research, rather than astrophysics, though these dreams were very closely followed by the introduction of the Helios 7 mission meaning they did not receive much focus or pursuit. After the mission, Lena’s main dream has been to have Dylan see Earth in real life as opposed to only in the Earth Room. She has also had the wish to return home and see her family again. The Helios mission has changed her dream from one that cures human disease to one that cures environmental disease – Lena wishes to help to make sure that people appreciate Earth for the beautiful thing it is, and never forget how close they were to losing everything they have ever known. 'Strengths' Lena is very easy to be around (mostly because she treats you like a best friend because that’s the only way she knows how to act) and takes sour faced characters as a challenge. She is of course very talented in her sphere of knowledge in Solar Physics, and never fails to do the best she can within her responsibilities. 'Weaknesses' Sometimes her blunt and crude nature can lead to insult and offence. Also, if she is under pressure or stress, she lashes out verbally and can seriously hurt people she loves sometimes without even noticing. Lena is self-degrading and has a constant feeling of unworthiness which can bring both her focus and her productivity down (which in turn, increases her feeling of worthlessness). She also takes insults badly, and returns whatever she is given, despite sometimes imagining the insult in the first place. 'Habits' Lena frequently places herself as the lowest priority which is a serious risk for someone with her injuries – working too hard and too long results in her unable to work at all, let alone breathe properly. She also deflects compliments and absorbs insults, and even though she may retort quickly, an insult to something she is particularly sensitive about will leave her nails in stumps for nights on end. 'Relationships' 'Family' 'Cora Friday (b. 2012)' Cora loves Lena very much and was sad that she did not have the opportunity to get to know her daughter as well as she could before Lena left on the mission. She knows that she should have spent more time caring for Lena, but with another child, three more infants and a teenage boy, Cora’s time was eaten up by keeping sanity reigning. Although Lena does not know it, Cora heavily protested Lena’s involvement in the Helios 7 mission, and the argument between Cora and William about this nearly broke apart their marriage. Cora knew her daughter had other ambitions and did not want her to also miss out on these as well as a deeper relationship with her mother. 'William Friday (b. 2010)' William, like Cora was not nearly as close to Lena as he would have liked. However, William was extremely supportive of Lena’s selection into the Helios 7 project, believing it would give his daughter the opportunities she needed to finally get the attention she had lacked at home. The population of Earth at this time was significantly larger, and having the upper cut when applying for jobs was increasingly difficult. William viewed the mission as this upper cut. 'John Friday' Debatably the only reason Lena managed to stay at a vaguely sane state during her mission. John, despite wanting to look cool never put his reputation before his little sister, and always looked out for her when he could. He was the physicist of their craft and generation, and consequently enjoyed to test her on the fields where their spheres of physics overlapped, teasing her good naturedly when she made mistakes. John once punched Sam Leighton (communications 2nd Gen) in the face for making Lena cry. In the end he sacrifices his life with the rest of the crew to keep Dylan alive, who had already grown close to Lena. He is also the only one who could make any real improvements on Lena when she was under the effects of her chronic claustrophobia, and also one of the vital factors in Cora’s eventual decision to allow Lena on the mission in the first place. 'Anice Friday (b. 2040)' Anice and her sister were extremely close; in fact their closeness nearly jeopardized the entire Helios mission at one point. Anice grew used to having Lena as a sort of second mother, and misses her very much. Every night, Anice checks the mailbox for a message from Lena, even after she found out Lena was in the Dead Zone. 'Thomas Friday (b. 2044)' Thomas was only three when Lena left, but between work and taking care of the babies, Cora also relied on Lena to help with Thomas. Thomas couldn’t say ‘l’s and subsequently calls Lena ‘Reena’ or simply ‘Ree’. 'Ben Friday (b. 2045)' The older twin infant. Ben was not only too young to really know who Lena was, but also too young to notice a difference when she was gone. 'Mark Friday (b. 2045)' The younger infant twin. Pretty much the same story here as well – too young to really even notice… 'Friends' 'Dani May' Not much can really explain Dani and Lena’s relationship. They have become family over the years of living together on Helios 7 both pre and post-crash. Lena owes her life to Dani who kept her alive after her nearly fatal metal bar injury, and is forever attempting to repay her. Lena and Dani enjoy the benefits of a normal family relationship with playful banter, creepy telepathic moments and the unspoken assurance that nothing could ever break their friendship no matter what. They also fight like any family does, though forgiveness simply through time or attention span is always inevitable. Lena tries her hardest to match Dani’s workload, and when confronted with spare time, likes to use it by pissing Dani off just to show how much she really cares. Lena often blames herself for Dani’s emotional detachment, feeling like she should have been there for Dani when she was needed most but was in the grip of injury. Lena once found a video that Dani had recorded of her experiences during Lena and Dylan’s unconsciousness, but quickly stopped watching when she realized the nature of the video. Dani is constantly telling Lena to focus on the presentation of her cooking so that maybe one say it will look as good as it tastes. She also is uneasy about Lena’s constant badmouthing to Helios which Lena of course sees as extra incentive to speak to Helios as if he were selling her cocaine on the backstreets of New York. 'Dylan Morris' Lena is practically Dylan’s mum. She has taken care of him since he was three years old, helped teach him how to live in a world without eyes and picked him up when he has fallen. Lena loves Dylan unlike anything else and would literally do anything rather than see him hurt. Lena finds it hilarious that Dylan has begun to pick up on her foul language, despite retaining his sweet, calm and intelligent personality. Lena takes the full blame for his death and it nearly destroys her. 'Robert Mace' Mace and Lena grudgingly get along from the moment Dani points a gun in his face and they both laugh about it afterwards. They have an annoying habit of commentating Dani’s every move, a game Lena has played for years which Mace whole heartedly picks up. Mace and Lena enjoy the friendly hit-and-return style conversations in which insults are as frequent as jokes. 'Love Interest' 'Robert Capa' Lena and Capa do not get off to a good start (breaking his nose and all) and it takes a little longer for him to trust her and the rest of Helios compared to the rest of the Icarus 2 crew. Capa plays entirely on logic, which Lena of course takes as a personal challenge to make him laugh. Through attempting to remain serious, Capa merely provides Lena with more material for jokes. From the beginning Lena makes incredibly direct jokes about Capa with all of the delicacy of a blunt axe, though when their relationship begins to develop, Capa is surprised to discover that when returned with the same sort of messages, Lena transforms from wit to twit. Lena eventually relies entirely on Capa and vice versa, for both intellectual, emotional and physical (insert sifty expression here) support. However, both of them know that if their logic is not entirely sound, they should not expect the other to support them out of duty or obligation. Before the Helios crew and Icarus crew really get to know each other, Lena hates spending time with Capa as he reminds her of her brother John. They have the same occupation; the same clear cut sense of logic and the same way of speaking (give or take a few creative cusses). Lena also is reluctant to let her emotions for Capa hinder her ability to take the best possible care of Dylan, and also her Helios responsibilities. Lena is also incredibly new to the experience of falling in love, as she literally has all the experience of a thirteen year old. She finds it confusing and frustrating, and when first trying to communicate this to Dani, she does not yet realize why she is feeling like this. Lena reacts badly at first to Dani’s suggestion of the cause of these emotions, and treats Capa extra especially horribly for a good week just to prove that she doesn’t love him (therefore confirming that she actually is). This combined with Capa’s similar reluctance to jeopardize the mission and his obliviousness to romance means their relationship takes much slower steps than that of Mace and Dani’s.